COBBLED WITH SKULLS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3966, 26 June 1915, Page 7

COBBLED WITH SKULLS.

jNEUYE CHAPELLE AFTERMATH. i Tlio correspondent of the Associated ! Press, tlie great American news ! agency, at the British Headquarters, ! gives- the following graphic account ot i the situation, in Heave Chapelle : | The ground west of this now sliatI tored town from which the _ British ! drove the Germans in the middle ot : March with such terrible lo.ss of life ' on both sides, is literally cobbled with German skulls. Tile dead lie buried in shallow graves everywhere, and the whole place is strewn with wreckage. ''The scene can best he likened to the site of a western American town razed by a cyclone. The British have made everything a? tidy as they can, but- beneath many trenches and dug-outs Gin of bayonet will meet the resistance of cloth and human flesh, while in the no man’s land between the now British line and the German trenches to the east tlio j bodies still lie thick. Neither- side ; dares to attempt to remove them, and, unless some situation develops to alter the relative position of the opposing lines, they are likely to lie there when the summer comes. “You are sitting on a dead German,” sard a young officer who was entertaining mo in liis dug-out. “We found him by chance while exploring yesterday. He is only a few inches down, and we don’t want Irks company, but it- is hardly practicable to remove him now.”

THOUSANDS OF DEAD. Other trendies and dug-outs unwillingly harbor bodies of thousands which covered the ground alter tlie British rush. Many have been buried, both German and British, and little white crosses dot the landscape between the lines. ... So quickly did the British break through the" German line that full details of the action are only now becoming known even to men who participated, the suddenness of it all being such that many were so dazed that they only knew that they got through. In 'fact, British: staff officers laughingly assert that the rush was too quick for the best results, the German line giving way so sudden that the British found themselves like a man who hits his opponent with all his. might, hut encounters only slight resistance, and is thrown slightly off his balance. “If we had to fight for it that day wo might have taken Anbers, and perhaps Lille,” said an officer with a smile. “At any rate, we gave the Germans the worst drubbing of the war, and the effect all along our front lias been incalculable. Every man mi the British Army believes sincerely that we can break the German lino if wo want to, and that is a mighty comfortable feeling.” The average soldier is, of course, weary of trench warfare, and will be glad when all is over, but Neuvc Chapelle ihas acted like a tonic on the British forces. I approached the British lines while shells from both sides were swishing overhead, and made my way to the dug-out wliei o the officer who referred to the unwelcome German dead was my host. The men seemed oblivious of the shellfire, and streamed from the trenches eager to gather souvenirs and entertain visitors. They swarmed about the entrance to the dug-out until the officer, with fatherly solicitude, cried, “Get down there, you chaps, or you'll have, a. German tossing :1 s.iell among us. The party seated, a Tommy produced a German cartridge with the, bullet reversed. “Look for yourself,” said he. “That’s, what they’re doing, ancl they make a horrible wound. Wo found lots of them.’’ While I and the other correspondents sat viewing the ruins of Nonvo Chapel!e and tracing the line, of the old German trenches, which was. easily distinguishable, there came a sinister whistling sound overhead, and as wo “ducked” a German shell struck the ground and exploded not far to the right. .. ~ • ‘Must what I told you, said tlie officer. “You chaps,have been running around her like children on a picnic. There will be another one m ’ a minute". The Germans have been mighty quiet, but when they spot anything they let loose with a shell just to show they arc on the job.” His prediction’was true. Again there was that 'swishing overhead, then a bang and a shower ol dirt and a rain of shell fragments, this time much nearer. “That's, only a pip squeak,” remarked a Tommy, rather contemptuously, using a slang term for the smaller German shells. One ••pip squeak,’ nevertheless, can kill 2o men or more if it 'hits the right spot. “There will' be still another, ’ said i the officer, and there was. Once more came the strange noise in the air,, ana -j , a bang. A shell-had hit. the edge, ot I the roof, of tlm dug-out, making i utensils in it dance, arid showering the j now crouching party with nine!. ‘J I think' wo V.: r r* k' ttor go in r.u<l mo.'V'O tea,’ 7 smilingly suggested tho officer. I All went into the dug-out. where exq celleiit tea was passed round, for the I British- soldier, raid- especially the officer, wants tea in the firing line ! just as much, as at home. Every man was clean-shaven, .and I though manv had not luid a real math for weeks, looked well-groomed. Dur-. >ing tea an energetic youngster ventimed out again, and came back grin- ' jiing around here like children on a ; rnont- of shrapnel. “Here s a P ,ecc p, • that last shell,” he said. “Its still | warm. Keep it with my comphj ments.’-